SL bat in must-win match

Kumar Sangakkara won the toss on a pitch that was expected to become low and slow during the second half of the match. Accordingly Sri Lanka chose to bat first, and Virender Sehwag said he would have fielded anyway because of the dew concern. The toss notwithstanding, Sri Lanka received their share of inauspicious news in the lead-up to the must-win match. Chanaka Welegedara injured his groin during the warm-up, which meant Thissara Perera got a debut. Sanath Jayasuriya was drafted back into the XI, slated to bat in the middle order, replacing Nuwan Kulasekara.

This move to strengthen the batting line-up seemed a direct reaction to their collapse in the Cuttack ODI. They chose to rest Ajantha Mendis, giving Suranga Lakmal aother game. Chamara Kapugedera was dropped too, with Thilan Samaraweera bringing the solidity to the middle order. To even things out, this was the first time India were playing without both their most successful middle-order batsmen, MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh - for the first time since Dhoni made his debut in the last month of 2004. Yuvraj's place was taken by Virat Kohli, the only change to the XI that secured a 2-1 lead in the Cuttack ODI.

Sri Lanka: 1 Upul Tharanga, 2 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (capt/wk), 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 Thilan Samaraweera, 6 Thilina Kandamby, 7 Sanath Jayasuriya, 8 Suraj Randiv, 9 Suranga Lakmal, 10 Lasith Malinga, 11 Thissara Perera.

India: 1 Virender Sehwag (capt), 2 Sachin Tendulkar, 3 Gautam Gambhir, 4 Virat Kohli, 5 Suresh Raina, 6 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Zaheer Khan, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Ashish Nehra.